Heinous F%$&ery

I mentioned yesterday that I'm reading Christopher Moore's Fool and this title just about sums it up. And I mean that in the best possible way. If you have never read Christopher Moore, you need to pick up one of his books. I'd recommend Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Friend but you could easily start with any of his others and be just as happy. I've read almost all of his books and have yet to be disappointed. Fool is a light-hearted bawdy romp through Shakespeare with a bit of modern sensibilities.

Fool is the story of King Lear, told by his court fool, a small but mischievous man named Pocket. The tragedy of the mad king and his scheming daughters becomes a comedy when given to a fool to tell. For those of you who are not aware of the Shakespearean tradition of the fool, this is not a simple court jester. A court fool was often the only person in the court who told the truth, no matter how painful. And Pocket certainly lays it out on the line. Most of the royals around him want to hang him, the king threatens him regularly with violence, and he ends up in more beds than should be allowed. There is intrigue, madness, sex, death, and tons of swearing. Heinous F...ery as Pocket calls it.

The story starts with the mad King's decision to split his lands based on which of his daughters loves him the most. Two of the daughters profess their undying love and receive portions of the kingdom. The third, and youngest, says that she loves him as a daughter, nothing more. She is banished to France. From that point on Pocket is scheming to get the daughter back into the country. And the daughters are scheming to take the rest of the kingdom away and rule the entire country. All through this Pocket, bells merrily jingling, seduces and bribes his way through the kingdom creating war, havoc, and ultimately death.

Moore may be telling the story of King Lear but he doesn't confine himself to one story. The witches of Macbeth play a role in this story, and Moore uses lines from at least eight other plays that I counted. The character of Pocket is wonderful. I love him the way I loved stories of Harlequin, there is something wonderful about being bad. Pocket shags every unmarried and sometimes married women he can, swears constantly, and is regularly deriding and verbally attacking any character in sight. He's a scoundrel but a lovable one. He is surrounded by a cast of enjoyable characters and one rather randy ghost (there's always a bloody ghost). The book is full of puns, inside jokes, one-liners, and bawdy humor. And like all Moore's books, it was a wild ride that ends up being a ton of fun.